Bus Franchising in Greater Manchester

[Brickmill]

RE: Bus Franchising in Greater Manchester

(13/12/2017 21:39)mr t Wrote:  The GM area has always been a lot more on top when it comes to pushing ideas for the future hence the now massive metrolink, trains and trams to the Airport, its own road link to motorway, the M60 project plus lots of bus priorities, 2 massive football stadiums both with tram and train stations. Plus they still have like 20 operators and a lot of competition compared to Merseyside.

A touch of "the grass is greener" methinks. As far as bus users/non motorists are concerned, Metrolink and the completion of the M60 have been absolute disasters - alongside the change in School hours and De-reg itself.

FTR, the Etihad does not have a train station - the nearest being Ashburys about a mile away - but both stadia are served by match day buses on top of "service" buses, from the city centre.
Whilst there remains a fair amount of competition in the Tendered market, there is only little competition in terms of commercial services - not that that is necessarily a bad thing, as its proved utterly disasterous for most over the last 31 years!

Also, there are few meaningful bus priorities in GM, and where they do exist they have often caused more harm than good. Bus Lanes are too short and bitty, too often they have narrowed the road from 2 lanes to one (where in some cases they could have been 4 to 3 or at least 3 to 2) and their restricted hours of use means they are grossly outdated. Probably worst of all is that if you are on a bus, you are FAR more likely to be the first vehicle stopped at a red light, than if you were driving a car or van.